Link to Part one
One thing that I’ve always envied about police on television is that they only have to deal with one matter at a time. Well, that and the fact they have absolutely no paperwork to do. Unfortunately in the real world events, such as Darren’s murder don’t take place in a vacuum. La Ronge Detachment was a busy spot at the best of times. For at least one of the years I was there we led the country in the highest average number of Criminal Code charges per police officer. One year we had five murders by July, in a detachment area of approximately 6,000 people. You never had only one matter to deal with at a time.
Darren’s murder happened at the start of one of the busiest weekends of my tenure there. In addition to the murder we had five other stabbings that weekend. There were other serious assaults, and the attempted murder of two of my colleagues. We had the Police Service Dog up from Prince Albert, a two hour drive south, three times. A call of a break and enter Friday morning didn’t get responded to until Sunday, and at that time I seized drugs and scales from the house as they were preparing to sell a large quantity of marihuana (note to dealers: If you have a box of marihuana in your front entrance way, lock the door and don’t yell “Come in!” when someone knocks).
By the time I had left the hospital I had enough information to arrest Jasper and I picked up Mel, a recruit, and went looking for him. As I pulled into Far Reserve, where Jasper lived, a call came over the radio that a pickup truck full of people armed with baseball bats and bars was driving around the Far Reserve looking to beat someone up. Although I was literally metres away from Jasper’s house we turned off and began looking for the truck, heading off trouble was always better than picking up after it. We cruised all over the Reserve but were unable to find it, and speculated that it was Darren’s friends, so to head off further problems we would need to arrest Jasper as soon as possible.
He was waiting for us at his father’s house. In his bedroom he held his girlfriend tightly and greeted me as I walked in. He was crying, and offered no resistance as I placed him under arrest, read him his rights, and then explained them in plain language until he could explain to me what they meant. Handcuffed, we made our way to the truck and then back to the detachment.
It was still relatively early in the morning when we made our way back to the Detachment, but the rest of dayshift was already run off their feet. Several calls had come in, but although there were several of us working, most of the responding to the calls fell to Kevin and Mark. As the legal aid lawyer appeared to speak to Jasper, we grabbed a quick cup of coffee and I filled the lawyer in with what was known thus far. As Jasper and the lawyer went into interview room and I parked myself outside, I made a mental note of a call that just came in for Mark and Kevin. The call was from the comcentre advising that an anonymous male caller phoned to say that Greasy was smashing up his place and they needed the police there right away. Mark and Kevin responded, and I remember thinking that the last place I needed to be at that moment was watching the door of the interview room, unable to leave.
Greasy was a heavy equipment operator, who owned a shop on the edge of town. He and his family lived in a trailer behind the shop. He was short and powerfully built and as for the rest of his description, well Greasy pretty much sums it up. He had a known propensity to violence, and a known hatred of police. He was one of those individuals that I could not, for the life of me, figure out why he wasn’t permanently in gaol.
In the 10-code that police use there is a code that means “drop everything, help me now, I’m in danger". Say it’s 10-22 (it’s not). You dread hearing it, and dread even more having to use it. There have been very few moments in my life when I’ve felt as helpless as when I heard Mark scream 10-22, and I was stuck in the office, unable to go anywhere.
To be continued…..
Comments
5 responses
Interesting reading Clare.
This is a great story Clare.
I’m already looking forward to the next chapter.
You should write a book.
Wow, this is really gripping.
Oh Clare. This is heartbreaking. Quite a story.